Bloomfield Seeks Help Educating Foster-care Children

BLOOMFIELD — The large number of licensed foster care families in Bloomfield has allowed the state Department of Children and Families to place many children in more stable homes.

But officials say that the town's ability to care for these children adds financial pressures to the school district, which has been looking to the state agency for relief, but finding none.

``We receive a disproportionate number of youngsters placed by DCF in the Bloomfield community,'' said School Superintendent Paul Copes. ``It places an additional burden on the fiscal and human resources of the school system.''

School officials are now lobbying Bloomfield's legislative delegation to amend laws that were recently placed on the books to financially assist town's with large numbers of foster children.

The laws were designed to enable towns to receive reimbursement from the state Department of Children and Families for the cost of educating foster care children, but officials say that the criteria for reimbursement are strict and nearly impossible to meet. Bloomfield turned over a $221,000 bill to DCF this summer, but was denied payment.

The laws state that DCF is only responsible for special education costs of children with no legal residence, and even those children must meet several criteria:

Their first agency placement had to occur on or after July 1, 1995; they had to have no legal residence at the time, and remain without one; and they have to stay in placement for a year without returning to a parent or guardian.

Marlene Mayes, the head of pupil services in Bloomfield, said that most children do not fall under the guidelines of the 1995 public act.

``A lot of times we see kids leaving, and then they're back in the door six months later,'' Mayes said.

She said that if the DCF is placing children in foster care homes in Bloomfield, it should be picking up the tab for students who require services above and beyond the average child.

This year, Bloomfield has 88 foster care children in the system -- roughly 3.5 percent of the student population -- and 35 of those students require special education. The transporation cost for those children are hefty.

Josh Howroyd, a legislative program manager for the state Department of Children and Families, said that although the legislature has mandated the agency to help towns, it has not given the state agency the funding necessary to do that. It has created considerable confusion, Howroyd said.

``It's a question of who is going to be ultimately responsible for paying the bills,'' he said, and the Department of Children and Families cannot do that if it doesn't have the resources.

State Rep. Mary U. Eberle, D-Bloomfield, says that Bloomfield is in a weak bargaining position because there aren't many towns in the same quandary. But she said she and other Bloomfield legislators will be revisiting the issue in the coming session.

Roy Duncan, who heads a taxpayers advocate group in Bloomfield, said lawmakers are not moving quickly enough and taxpayers are suffering for it.

``The result so far has been zero,'' he said. ``If they are wards of the state, the state ought to be paying their education.''